Get Racing - we've got prizes!

Since it’s been something of a non-stop Real Racing 3 party here at 148Apps we wanted to draw things to a close with a bit of style. Which is why we’re going to capitalize on all the spirit of Time Shifted competition and challenge you, our readers, to a race. Specifically the Pure Stock Challenge, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Nissan Silvia (S15) Showcase Cup race pictured above. I think I’ve typed that out correctly. Why this event? Because it requires one of the first cars new players will have access to and doesn’t allow for any other; providing as even and easily accessible a playing field as we could find.

All you have to do is drive your heart out. Snap a screen shot (hit the Power and Home buttons on your iOS device at the same time) of your best time and post it in the comments below along with your Game Center username. We’ll pick random winners from all of the entries and post the results here on Monday (3/4) afternoon.

The prizes? We'll give away three $10 iTunes gift cards to spend how you see fit. Although in the spirit of the contest we’d suggest something like, oh, maybe the Race Car Booster Pack that includes 65 gold and a 2010 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR-X?

Update: We'll contact our three winners via email. Thanks for playing and look for more Real Racing 3 contests coming up soon.

Chillingo and Aspyr Media’s Poker Pals has been one of the best asynchronous multiplayer games of the last year on iOS. I have played it on a nearly-daily basis since first getting to play it. This mixture of a turn-based game like Words With Friends and poker has proven to be extremely compelling over time, and I still have 8 or 9 games going at a time.

Luck is important, but so is skill, finding ways to use the hands. Maybe one move would score more, but another might set up a higher scoring play on the next hand. Playing four cards at once in order to clear out the hand is a great strategy. Is it worth making the first move on the edge of the board to open up the jokers? I’ve played one game where neither of us played a move on the outer edge until the center of the board was a 5x5 block of cards. Weird things can happen in this game, and that’s part of the fun of it, because one move can change the complexion of the board entirely.

Starting today, Poker Pals for the iPhone is going free. That’s the full version for the iPhone and iPod touch, available at no cost, allowing for those limited to the free version’s three game limit to expand out and find more players. As well, a recent update added iCloud support, so iPad owners with the HD version of the game can now synchronize their games across all iOS devices.

While the game allows for friends to be found via Crystal or Game Center, and to start up games against random opponents, to help get our readers started out, here’s a list of some of 148Apps staff’s usernames:

Another holiday weekend in the US means one thing -- apps on sale! This time around we are seeing good, but not best ever sales from Gameloft, EA, Namco, Big Fish, and many many more. Hit up the list below, we'll try to update it a couple times this weekend -- but I've got a grill to attend to as well!

And as always, you can keep track of the latest and greatest app price drops on the Price Drops page and RSS feed.

Update: 9/4, 1pm - Labor Day weekend continues. The grill is hot, the beer is cold. Should be a perfect day. Oh, and here are another 30 great apps that are on sale for super cheap.
Update: 9/5, 11am - More apps, more great sales!

Spring is in the air, and Namco Bandai is celebrating with a sale. From Friday, May 6 through Monday, May 9, take advantage of markdowns on some of the company's biggest iOS games. Below is a full list of games that will be on sale but please note that some or all games may only be on sale within the US iTunes store.

Another weekend, another great multiplayer game. This weekend, we're designating the great strategy game Galcon as our weekend fun. Come join us.

Galcon is a game of conquest. Your goal is to fight against the other players and capture as many of the planets as possible. You do this by directing your ships (you have a specific number at each planet you control), from your planets to other players planets or uncontrolled planets. The planets that you control also produce new ships. So the more planets you control, the more ships you produce.

Once control of all of the planets has been achieved by a single player, that player wins. You can play many different variations as a single player game to get used to how the game is played. But when you are ready, hit the multiplayer version.

Besides the great strategic gameplay, Galcon also has a killer multiplayer version. The iPhone version, known as just Galcon, offers up to 4 player multiplayer games. You can play over the internet with others, or you can play locally over Wifi and Bluetooth. The online multiplayer is where it's at. There's never a time you can't find a game to join.

The iPad version is an enhanced version of the game with many added features over the iPhone version. Not only are there more single player versions of the game to play, there are also 6 different multiplayer variations you can play. In addition, the multiplayer version on the iPad supports up to 12 players. And Galcon Fusion is the same as the desktop version. This means that you'll be playing on your iPad against Windows and Mac users as well.

What other multiplayer games would you like to see us feature on Weekend Fun? Let us know in the comments.

This weekend, we're going to have fun in another brain game. This time, it's a game similar to Risk, Strategery.

Strategery is a land battle game where you battle up to 4 other players on random maps of various sizes. You start out controlling an equal part of the world map and battle to control more. You initiate a battle against another country on the board and then automatic dice rolls determine the winner. You turn continues until you have done all of the valid battles you wish. After your turn you can reinforce your troops in the countries that you still control to give you stronger forces for the next round. The game continues until one player or the other obliterates the others and controls all of the countries on the map.

The game takes strategy, planning, and a little bit of luck.

Strategery includes an online, 2 player battle mode that works similar to last weeks Words With Friends. Each player takes their turn on their own time and there are push notifications to let you know when it's your turn. While the multiplayer system isn't very robust, it gets the job done.

Now, the contest part! Add your Strategery user name below so that we can have a group of willing players to play against. I am, as usual, Jeff148Apps, feel free to hit me up for a game. We'll pick a random winner for a $15 US iTunes gift card from all the entries and announce it next weekend.

If you want to check the game out before buying, there's a Lite version available for the iPhone, but it lacks the online battle mode.

Update 5/8: Wow! What a great response. Over 300 of you joined us in playing Words With Friends. Of the 20+ games I've got going, I'm losing most of them. No big surprise there! As mentioned below, we picked a winner, emailed them and once they respond we'll send them the $15 iTunes gift card. Check back later for another Weekend Fun post about another multiplayer game and a $15 iTunes gift card winner.

Last week, we kicked off our Weekend Fun series with We Rule. 99 of you joined us to build our kingdoms to new levels. We've announced the winner of last weekends $15 iTunes gift card on that page and emailed the winner. This week, it's time to step it up a notch and start to exercise our vocabularies a little.

Words With Friends is our Weekend Fun contest for this week. If you aren't familiar with Words With Friends, it's a multiplayer Scrabble type game. What makes it work so well on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (with HD version), is that you play it at your own pace. Once you play your move, the control passes to the other player who will play at their own pace.

Want to play Words With Friends? The cheapest way is to download the free version (link below), set up an account, and get started. From there you can initiate a game with someone you know, or have the game pick a random player for you. If you are looking for opponents, please add your username in the comments below and I'm sure someone will be more than happy to challenge you! Feel free to challenge me if you feel like winning (jeff148apps) -- I have about a 3rd grade vocabulary. (and yes, vocabulary is the largest word I know how to spell)

We'll pick a random player to win a $15 iTunes gift card (for the US iTunes Store) -- all you have to do to win is leave your Words With Friends id (not email address) in the comments below.

We Rule from ngmoco:) is one of the more popular community trading games. A genre of game most popularized by Farmville. This type of game revolves around building things and trading goods and services with other players. In We Rule one of the best ways to gain experience points and in-game currency is to sell and buy services with other players. Both buyers and sellers gain in these transactions.

To sell services, you just need to build buildings that sell goods and services. This is basically any of the buildings other than farms and homes. Users can then come to your kingdom and order from those buildings just by touching them. This is the same way that you can order services from other kingdoms. Visit other kingdoms and look for open signs to see what's available.

So let's use this post as a place to share each our Plus+ Network usernames so that we can start trading with each other. The idea being that we build a community within the We Rule community all trading with each other to build our XP as fast as possible. I'll start, I'm jeff148apps.

Add your Plus+ Network username below, in the comments. We can then all add each other as friends and start building up experience points and gold. To make it a little more enticing, we'll pick a random user from below for a $15 iTunes Gift card so you can buy more mojo in the game. We'll give away the gift card next weekend.

Also, make sure you have the latest version installed. Ngmoco recently fixed some bugs related to open businesses that should make things easier for us all.